1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical communications, and, more particularly, to an optical communications system for multiple users or transmitters.
2. Background Information
A major area of development in light or optical communications concerns multiple access communications, i.e., a mechanism by which multiple users may share the same communications channel. This has been done successfully in optical communications with frequency division (FDMA) and time division multiplexing techniques (TDMA). Optical TDMA, however, requires synchronization for the transmitters to avoid mutual interference. Optical FDMA, on the other hand, may severely restrict the number of transmitters because of limitations on the availability and range of tunable high powered light sources, such as lasers. A need thus exists for a multiple access optical communications system that does not require transmitter synchronization and is not limited by division of the bandwidth.